Fair show conflict resolved

Published 7:00 pm, Friday, September 24, 2004

But a scheduling conflict between the fair, which takes place April 1-10, and statewide student testing would have kept some students from participating, until a sharp-eyed mom discovered the problem.

Helen Wyatt and another mother were talking about the fair a few days ago because Wyatt's son Casey, a fifth-grader at Vogel Intermediate School in Oak Ridge and a member of 4-H, is raising a steer, and the other mother's child is raising a goat.

Judging for both the steer and market goat categories at the junior livestock show has been scheduled for April 5.

"We realized they were the same date as the fifth-grade TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills) test," Wyatt said. "Casey got his steer in June, and that's the whole reason we have it."

The goat judging begins at 10 a.m., and the steer judging is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m., which is after school but still not the most ideal time, Wyatt said.

"The time would work, but he's going to want to hurry up and get out of there to get to the fair," she said. "Once their animal's there, it's part of the project to be up there and take care of it.

"It's all about education, and they didn't check the testing dates."

After Wyatt was told by fair officials that they couldn't change the dates or times, she said, she immediately started calling all six county school district superintendents.

"I talked to Doctor (Don) Stockton (Conroe Independent School District superintendent) the first part of the week, and he said, 'We can't let the kids out of the TAKS test,'" she said. "I have no problems with the school district, but here we are stuck with this big animal. It's been a big ordeal for us."

Fair officials immediately started working with school district officials, including Leon Cubillas, superintendent of the Splendora Independent School District.

"When I spoke to them, it was obvious they were already aware and were reacting," Cubillas said. "I spoke to Beth Traylor (Fair Association secretary); they were concerned."

Even just the four or five fifth-graders in Splendora who would be impacted by the scheduling conflict could make a big difference in the district's TAKS results if they were absent from testing, Cubillas said.

"If we have kids out (during testing), it could affect the rating just on the basis of the number of kids taking the test," he said. "It could bring an exemplary rating down to recognized or a recognized rating down to acceptable."

As soon as Traylor got off the phone with Wyatt, "I immediately started working on it," she said. "We had a meeting (Wednesday) night and think we've got it taken care of."

About 1,000 students participate in the livestock show each year, she said. According to the Fair Association's Web site, about 40 scholarships, funded by the Trail Ride and a percentage of the junior livestock and non-livestock auctions, were given to students last year.

Now, the goat judging will take place a day later, at 9 a.m. April 6, and the steer judging has been moved back an hour, from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. April 5.

Trying to schedule the Montgomery County Fair can be difficult, Traylor said.

"Until about two years ago, we always started the fair on the third Friday of March," she said. "Then, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo moved their schedule later, and we felt like we had to move back a week to the fourth Friday. A lot of our kids also show down in Houston."

The 2005 Fair had an additional scheduling problem because Easter falls on March 27, the weekend after the fourth Friday.

"We felt like we weren't going to have the fair on Easter," Traylor said. "This is the first time we've had to deal with the TAKS test. We haven't voted on the dates for the next three years, but we'll probably check to see if there's going to be a problem."

Wyatt was happy to learn of the schedule change.

"It's a little bit of a compromise," she said. "It's not a perfect solution, but I'm glad they worked it out."